Podesta worked as a trial attorney for the Department of Justice's Honors Program in the Land and Natural Resources Division (1976–77), and as a Special Assistant to the Director of ACTION, the Federal volunteer agency (1978–79). His political career began in 1972, when he worked for George McGovern's unsuccessful presidential campaign.[12]

The Clinton years

Podesta in 1993

Podesta served as both an Assistant to the President and as Deputy Chief of Staff. Earlier, from January 1993 to 1995, he was Assistant to the President, Staff Secretary and a senior policy adviser on government information, privacy, telecommunications security and regulatory policy. Podesta was the first White House staffer to get the news of the Lewinsky scandal and was put in charge of managing the crisis.[14] In 1998 he became President Clinton's Chief of Staff in the second Clinton Administration and executed the position until the end of Clinton's time in office in January 2001. Podesta encouraged Executive Order 12958 which led to efforts to declassify millions of pages from the U.S. diplomatic and national security history.[15]

Recent years

In 2003, Podesta founded the Center for American Progress, a liberalthink tank in Washington, D.C., and served as its president and CEO until he stepped down in 2011. (CAP chief operating officer Neera Tanden succeeded Podesta as president and CEO, taking over day-to-day operations.)[16][17] Podesta remained chairman of the nonexecutive board of directors for a time,[17][17][18] and remains on the board today, although not as chairman.[19]

Podesta has taught at his alma mater, Georgetown University Law Center, many times over the years,[20] teaching classes on congressional investigations, law and technology, legislation, copyright and public-interest law.[20][21] On the Georgetown faculty, Podesta's title is Distinguished Visitor from Practice.[21]

From 2002–14, Podesta served as a member of the Constitution Project's bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee.[22] In 2008, he authored The Power of Progress: How America's Progressives Can (Once Again) Save Our Economy, Our Climate, and Our Country. In 2009, he accompanied former President Bill Clinton to North Korea for negotiations securing the release of two American journalists imprisoned on espionage charges. He can be seen in numerous widely circulated photographs of Clinton meeting with Kim Jong-il.[23]

Podesta opposes the excessive use of classification, and in a 2004 speech at Princeton University condemned what he called the U.S.'s "excessive government secrecy" and "bloated secrecy bureaucracy".[24]

Podesta has called Executive Order 12958, "which set tough standards for classifying documents and led to the unprecedented effort to declassify millions of pages from our nation's diplomatic and national security history," as "perhaps the biggest accomplishment of the Clinton administration."[24] More than 800 million pages of intelligence documents were declassified as part of the program.[25]

Podesta is described as "a longtime advocate for government disclosure of UFO files."[26] Podesta has supported petitions by some who believe UFOs are alien spacecraft to the government to release files related to the subject. At a 2002 news conference organized by Coalition for Freedom of Information Podesta stated that, "It is time for the government to declassify records that are more than 25 years old and to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon."[27]

Podesta wrote the forward for a book by Leslie Kean titled "UFOs- Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On The Record". The book details numerous contact events by these trained personnel.[28]

Personal email leak

On October 7, 2016, WikiLeaks started to publish thousands of emails reportedly retrieved from Podesta's private Gmail account, some of which contained controversial material regarding Clinton's positions or campaign strategy.[34] Podesta and the Clinton campaign did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the emails.[35][36] Experts investigating the leak, including a private security firm called CrowdStrike, claimed to have tracked the hacking tools used, and claimed that a Russian hacking group had accessed Podesta's account.[37] Podesta said that Russian intelligence officials attempting to influence the presidential election in favor of Donald Trump were behind the leak.[34]

When asked about the leaks, Vladimir Putin replied that claims of Russian involvement were false. "The hysteria is merely caused by the fact that somebody needs to divert the attention of the American people from the essence of what was exposed by the hackers."[44][45]

Personal life

He and his wife Mary Podesta, a Washington, D.C. attorney, married in 1978 and have three children.[48][49] His daughter, Megan Rouse, is the president of the Dublin Unified School District (CA) Board of Trustees.[50][51] Podesta is an avid cook.[52]